In <4b821e8a.4040...@hardwarefreak.com>, Stan Hoeppner wrote: >Peter Tenenbaum put forth on 2/21/2010 10:01 PM: >> Stan -- >> >> It sounds like, if the Realtek drivers are not present on the Debian >> distribution. > > [...] any software that doesn't meet the "Free" > criteria isn't included by default. For kernel drivers, this creates a > huge problem. There is no way to include "non-free" in your Debian kernel > like you do in >/apt/sources.list. The Debian kernel team makes that choice for your.
That's not true. Whenever a firmware is removed from the upstream kernel source, as long as it meets the requirements for non-free, it is put into a firmware package in non-free. In addition, there's a linux-firmware meta- package in non-free that installs all the firmware that comes with the upstream kernel. >The really odd thing is that this firmware blob is included (was?) with the >standard Lenny kernel, 2.6.26. During development of the Squeeze and SID >kernels, the Debian kernel team decided this firmware blob was no longer >considered "free", so they removed it. The Debian kernel team generally depends on bug reports to let them know that some new part of the upstream kernel is not free. They remove it once the bug report is filed. Since DDs are human, it is entirely possible for non-free parts of packages to slip through the cracks and get included in a release. The kernel is not the first package to have this happen. -- Boyd Stephen Smith Jr. ,= ,-_-. =. b...@iguanasuicide.net ((_/)o o(\_)) ICQ: 514984 YM/AIM: DaTwinkDaddy `-'(. .)`-' http://iguanasuicide.net/ \_/
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